Mission
Founded in 2023, Tree Canopy NOLA advocates for the trees of New Orleans.
Just over 18% of the city is covered by a canopy of live oak, cypress, magnolia, and other species—compared to almost 33% before Hurricane Katrina (2005).
We envision a time when the canopy will cover half the parish, and the City’s expenditures on forestry will double—finally matching the national average of $2.5–3.5M annually.
We’re here to fight for a precious commodity under siege from climate change, human error—and inadequate municipal laws.
This website provides news and documentation about our work to strengthen weak City Code provisions that were enacted in 1956—and have not been amended since.
Timeline: Development of the draft tree protection ordinance
March 22, 2024. TCNOLA circulated its draft tree protection ordinance to City Councilmembers. (This is TCNOLA’s version of the ordinance.)
August 6, 2024. At a press conference, TCNOLA joined with other advocates to form the Save Trees with Ordinance Protection (STOP) Coalition, issuing An Urgent Call to Action (.ppt) to the City Council.
October 7, 2024. The City Council’s Quality of Life Committee held a public hearing on the draft ordinance proposed by the Department of Parks & Parkways. (This is the City’s version of the ordinance.) The P&PW ordinance was criticized for its inadequacies by many speakers, who criticized its lack of transparency, insufficient penalties, and feeble enforcement procedures. Watch the meeting video. Meeting minutes and link to online public comments.
December 16, 2024. We finally brought all parties to the table. These negotiations are ongoing.
February 24, 2025. The Council’s Quality of Life Committee will hold a public hearing on the ordinance. Tree advocates should plan to attend both this hearing and a Regular Meeting of the City Council on a date TBA, when Councilmembers will consider improvements to outdated City Code provisions that fail to protect trees.
March 27, 2025. Please use this electronic commenting form by 8 a.m. on 3/27/25 to oppose the INADEQUATE draft tree protection ordinance by P&PW.
Choose option: Regular 18. CAL. NO. 34,989 – BY: COUNCILMEMBERS HARRIS AND THOMAS (BY REQUEST). Or to express your opinion less publicly, please write an email to the Councilmembers using the same information in the subject line:
JP.Morrell@nola.gov; helena.moreno@nola.gov; Joseph.Giarrusso@nola.gov; Lesli.Harris@nola.gov; Freddie.King@nola.gov; eugene.green@nola.gov; Oliver.Thomas@nola.gov
(All emails are discoverable, i.e., subject to public records requests.)
The first quarter of 2025 will be critical for securing meaningful ordinance reforms. We’re advocating with Parks & Parkways and City Councilmembers to update transparency and enforcement issues in the City Code.
What you can do
Please send comments on the draft tree protection ordinance (TCNOLA’s version) to:
David Marcello, dmarcello@tcnola.org.
Sign up with TCNOLA‘s email updates to stay informed.
Let’s make 2025 a great year for the tree canopy!